“There were periods of time out there today that we really played well,” coach Mitch Jacobs said. “It was fun to see it. But it was frustrating to see us make errors to end sets one and four. When you’re playing a team as solid as Tulsa, you have to take it, they won’t give it to you.”

The Thundering Herd slipped to 14-15 (7-6 C-USA) on the season while the Golden Hurricane improved to 22-5 (11-1 C-USA) on the year. Marshall has lost four consecutive C-USA matches after winning its last five matches, including four straight league matches.

“Sammie (Bane) did a nice job moving the offense around and although we made a couple of errors at the end of set four, she couldn’t have set things up any better,” added Jacobs.

Three players tallied double-doubles for the Herd. Der collected her twelfth with 22 digs to go along with her 11 kills. Weaver tallied her third double-double of the season with 10 digs to go with her 16 kills. Junior setter Sammie Bane (Brownstown, Ind.) also collected her twelfth double-double with 52 assists and 20 digs.

“Defensively, for the most part, we did a wonderful job,” Jacobs said. “It gave us a lot of opportunities to convert and there were times we did.”

Marshall came out of the gate playing well in the first set and was able to jump up to a 16-12 advantage over the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa was able to muster up an 8-5 run to force Marshall into a timeout only up one, 21-20. Tulsa was able to sustain its momentum out of the timeout and scored five of the final seven points to win the set, 25-23.

The Herd came out sluggish in the second set after dropping a close first set and trailed 16-11, forcing Jacobs into a timeout. Coach Jacobs was unable to rally his troops as the Herd dropped the set, 25-19.

The Marshall squad came out of intermission looking good and took a 7-2 advantage early on in the second set. Tulsa answered the Herd’s run with a big 10-3 run to force Marshall into a timeout trailing 12-10. The Herd then answered that run with one of its own by taking a 21-19 advantage to force Tulsa into a timeout. Marshall was able to close out the set with a 4-1 run to win the third set, 25-20.

Tulsa came out in the fourth frame hitting well and forced the Herd into an early timeout, trailing 6-2. Marshall rallied off four-straight points to tie things at four all and force Tulsa into its first timeout. The Herd went ahead 9-7 when Tulsa’s bench was issued a yellow card by the official. Tulsa countered with four straight points to force Marshall into its second timeout trailing 11-9. Tulsa was then forced into its second timeout trailing 19-17. The Herd went up 24-21 on a big kill by Weaver before Tulsa countered with five straight points to win the final set 26-24.

The Herd will close out regular season action against C-USA foe Middle Tennessee at home on Friday, Nov. 15.